When the Heat is On: Persuasive Speaking on Environmental Risk, Controversies, and High-Stakes TopicsRCOM-452

Hosted by Northwest Environmental Training Center

Every time you open your mouth, you are managing two reputations: your personal reputation and the reputation of your organization. Whether you are presenting to stakeholders, clients, elected officials, or the media, you need to speak convincingly, with confidence, and with credibility. This course will help you gain the edge in difficult speaking situations.

This two day class is designed to develop skills for making prepared and impromptu presentations, especially for situations that may be controversial or highly charged. This course will help you gain the edge in difficult speaking situations and provide you with tools to effectively communicate environmental risk-related and other controversial issues to a broad range of audiences. Even when there is mistrust and anger in the room, with these skills you can build trust and credibility for you and your organization.

Through lecture, sharing, practice, exercises, role-plays, and demonstrations, you will learn communication techniques that excite, inspire and persuade. Position yourself and your organization as the thought leader on your topic by learning the techniques taught in this workshop. Do not miss the chance to improve your communications by getting valuable, hands-on advice so that the next time you get up to speak, your audience will STOP, LOOK, and LISTEN.

The first day focuses on communication skills for occasions when there is time to prepare in advance of an event, such as a formal briefing or prepared speech.

The second day focuses on the advanced skills for making impromptu presentations. You will learn how to present yourself and your information in the best possible way with techniques used by professional speakers.

Over the course of the sessions, attendees will learn five impromptu speaking models and stagecraft techniques used by professional speakers. These are designed to help you think on your feet and to quickly articulate your thoughts-vital skills, especially in communicating about environmental risk and other controversial, hot topic issues.

Environmental professionals have important information and an important message for stakeholders and decision makers. Make sure prepared statements are clear and confident, and ‘spur of the moment’ communications stick in the minds of your audience. Come prepared to learn from the instructor and learn from one another in a highly interactive and fun workshop where you will get the chance to practice and receive helpful coaching to improve your personal skill set.